The Porsche 911 Turbo (996) replaced the 993 Turbo shortly before the turn of the century. The most notable changes of the 996 were its water-cooled engine and vastly different exterior design.

The brakes and the interior of the car were also reworked. Porsche fitted the car with PSM (Porsche Stability Management), which can reduce understeer caused by sudden steering inputs by controlling the engine's output, if necessary.

The 911 Turbo is one of the quickest cars in the game due to its top speed and acceleration. It is capable of exiting corners with little loss of speed and is less prone to oversteer or understeer than the Porsche 993 Turbo.

The Porsche 911 Turbo is classed as a Class 3 car in the PC, Xbox and Gamecube releases of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. It is classed as a Class B car in the PlayStation 2 release.

In the PC, Xbox and Gamecube releases, it is unlocked by collecting 10,000 NFS Points. For the NFS Edition and police variant, 20,000 NFS Points are required.

In the PlayStation 2 release, the standard version is already available from start. The NFS Edition is unlocked upon collecting 750,000 NFS Points, although a police variant is not featured in this game release.

The PlayStation 2 variant of the 911 Turbo is notable for having a higher top speed than the Chevrolet Corvette C5 Z06 and Dodge Viper GTS. It accelerates averagely for a Class B car, but also handles better than most of its rivals. On straight roads, the 911 Turbo may be outperformed by the Lamborghinis though.